Integrating Relational Perspectives in Career Counseling Practice

Sweeping changes in the world of work are transforming the very fabric of career counseling practice as clients cope increasingly with work uncertainty, including unemployment, underemployment, and precarious work. The authors describe how relational perspectives (Blustein, 2011 ; Flum 2015 ; Richardson, 2012 ; Schultheiss, 2003 ) can be infused in career counseling, with a focus on the concerns of an increasingly stressed and anxious client population. To provide a framework for the application of relational perspectives, the authors integrate and present existing relational theories and frameworks in 4 tenets that have particular relevance for career counseling practice. An in‐depth case analysis is provided to illustrate how relational perspectives can be integrated in working with clients experiencing uncertain work and associated relational challenges.     

Sexual Orientation as a Factor in Career Development

As I reviewed the available case information on Allan, the concept of career development shaped my impressions of the client. “Career development is, for most people, a lifelong process of getting ready to choose, choosing, and typically, continuing to make choices from among the many occupations available in our society. Each person undertaking this process is influenced by a great number of factors, including family, personal values and aptitudes, and societal context” (Brown, Brooks, & Associates, 1990, p. xvii). As this statement suggests, career development is a holistic approach to counseling individuals. Each “factor” represents a piece of the puzzle that guides the individual through the process. Life-style issues (i.e., family, leisure, sexual orientation, personal values, societal context), as well as interests, work values, and skills are tightly interwoven within an individual's major or career choice.     

Integrating a Multicultural Perspective Into Training for Career Counseling: Programmatic and Individual Interventions

Preparing students to provide competent career counseling to multicuturally diverse clients requires a systematic and integrated effort by training programs. This article discusses the essential components in a comprehensive, programmatic commitment to multiculturalism, and offers suggestions for enhancing multicultural sensitivity and competence in individual trainees. The definition of multicultural diversity used in this article includes issues in addition to race and ethnicity (e.g., gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, and physical disability) and recognizes the diversity of counseling trainees.     

The Work–Family Interface: Integrating Research and Career Counseling Practice

This article addresses the work–family interface by reviewing research using Frone's ( 2003 ) bidirectional model of work–family conflict and facilitation. The review demonstrates that work–family conflict is associated with various detrimental outcomes and that work–family facilitation is positively correlated with enhanced mental and physical well‐being. After summarizing the research, the authors discuss recent models and perspectives from the field of vocational psychology, connect these models and perspectives to existing work–family literature, and propose theoretically based interventions for increasing facilitation and decreasing conflict.     

Career Counseling Practicum: Transformations in Conceptualizing Career Issues

The authors describe how their participation in a doctoral-level career counseling practicum has influenced their perceptions of the relationship between career and personal counseling, attitudes toward career services, and career interventions skills.     

Dilemmatic Constructions of Career in the Career Counseling Interview

Thirty career counseling interviews were recorded and inductively analyzed using a discourse analytic method. Findings indicate that clients in this setting present various dilemmatic themes of career in their talk. Three types of dilemmas were pervasive: uncertainty versus certainty, interests versus practical, and focus versus options. The findings suggest that career theorists and practitioners might find it useful to address the dilemmatic processes evident in “career talk.”     

Interpersonal Influences on Students' Academic and Career Decisions: The Impact of Sexual Orientation

The authors investigated differences in interpersonal influences on career decision making between gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) and heterosexual college students. Contrary to hypotheses, GLB students reported having more career role models than did heterosexual students, and the amount of inspiration received from role models did not differ between the 2 groups. However, GLB students perceived they received less support and guidance from others in their academic and career decision making. As expected, GLB students were more likely to endorse the importance of a career role model's sexual orientation and support of people with their own sexual orientation. Career intervention and research implications are discussed.     

Responding to a Community Need: Oakland University's Adult Career Counseling Center

Rapid changes in the world of work coupled with changes in individuals' needs necessitate career counseling assistance. The Oakland University Adult Career Counseling Center uses the services of counseling students to offer career advising to community adults at no charge. The center and its approach are described, along with brief examples of typical clients.     

Negative Career Outlook and the Working Alliance in Career Counseling

The authors investigated 3 dimensions of the working alliance—goal, task, and bond—and the reduction of negative career‐related thoughts. A pretest–posttest design revealed a significant reduction in negative career thoughts after an initial career counseling interview was provided to college students (N = 87). Regression analyses revealed that task predicted negative career thoughts. The findings offer evidence of the effectiveness of career counseling and of the contribution of working alliance to counseling as a process and outcome variable.     

Career Counseling Is Personal Counseling: A Constructivist Approach to Nurturing the Development of Gifted Female Adolescents

Gifted individuals face many concerns when contemplating their futures. Often hindered by career indecision; perfectionism; and multiple personal, familial, and societal pressures, some gifted young people flounder when they have the ability to flourish. Many counselors and educators trust that a wealth of talents will propel these adolescents to automatic life success, and the unique needs of this population can go unmet. This article considers the complexity of challenges facing gifted young women, presents current and potential interventions, and encourages integrating developmental and constructivist theories with objectivist techniques. Implications for practitioners and future research suggestions are highlighted.     

Career Counseling in a Volatile Job Market: Tiedeman's Perspective Revisited

This article explores implications of Tiedeman's original theory for career counselors. Some components of the theory seem to be compatible with existing volatile job market conditions. Notions of career path recycling, development in reverse, nonlinear progress, and parallel streams in career development are explored. Suggestions are made for counseling interventions and future research using this perspective.     

Career Counseling in Japan: Today and in the Future

The number of young people who postpone their career decision is increasing in Japan, as is the high unemployment rate. In companies, on the other hand, the traditional seniority system and lifetime employment, which once provided job security for corporate employees, began to collapse. Employees' work ethics and corporate attitudes toward workers have also changed. Under such circumstances, career counseling is the focus of public attention. In this article written in 1999, the author examines some problems in Japan's career counseling, compared with career counseling in the U.S., and discusses which course Japan's career counseling should take to cope with dramatic social changes.